Uncertainty

Beauty in Transformation

Life twists and turns. Events and things and situation change, reconfigure, disappear, and reform.  Nothing is permanent.  There are times when the future looks bleak, uncertain and painful. What is – seems not so great, and what will be seems to be even worse.  What to do?  It is not an easy decision to leave the vortex of pain and worry, to see in one’s mind’s eye love.  It is not, at first, easy to allow peace its open door to come forth through our being and breathe in the life and love of Spirit.  Our mind wants to wrestle with the specters of fear, doubt, anger, and pain.  But the endeavor is always exhausting and ultimately unproductive.  When engulfed in life circumstances that overwhelm us, when we feel like the rug has been pulled out from under us, how do we regain stability or a sense of order or direction? …one small breath at a time…one small step at a time…one small reaching out at a time.  Our minds want answers, the whole picture, concrete steps to take, and it keeps us up at night with its revolving array of thought, terrors and unpleasant possibilities.  It tries to wrestle control from us when we are most vulnerable and exhausted.  That’s how it rolls.  We’ve heard the admonitions, “Let go and let God.”  “Everything will work out!”  “Think positively!”  Or the kicker – “What’s in YOUR consciousness?!!!”  But when your world is falling apart, these statements, to whatever degree they may be true, are not helpful.  During these times, we want to know someone understands, that someone hears us.  We want to know, we’re not alone, that others have traversed this territory and have left footprints!  We need an arm around our shoulders, a place to get our bearings, a space to birth our wisdom, amidst the uncertainty, and pain, and fear.  We need a safe place, a hot meal, a helping hand, and a listening ear.  We need someone to hold the faith when ours is wavering, who believes in our strength when we feel weak and powerless.  We need the power of love to embrace and surround us and light the way when our candle has burned dim.

We’re seeking that balance – the yin and the yang.  Around us life’s opposites abound; its heartache and its joy; its darkness and its light; its beauty and its ugliness; its love and its hate.

How do we reconcile the joy when surrounded by the sadness?  How do we reconcile love when surrounded by hate?  How does one balance peace in the midst of violence?  There are people suffering, there are people smiling, there are people living and there are people dying.  At first appearance it seems like the circumstances of one’s life dictate our feelings and our outlook, our overall state of being.  And yet, taking a closer look, we can find those, who in the midst of indescribable misery find a way that allows their life to make a statement.  Anne Frank, Jesus, Viktor Frankl, Nelson Mandela, Malala Yousafzai, and a host of others both known and unknown.  They found their way through horrendous situations, but weren’t reduced because of them.  When life’s conditions squeezed them, their spirits expanded beyond the circumstances.  They moved through, and rose above what was occurring in and around them.  They elevated their consciousness and their behavior to a place of forgiveness and love.  And their impact on this planet cannot be denied.

            What makes them different from Joe or Josephine average?  Nothing really.  It is an attitude, a decision, many decisions that essentially proclaimed,  “This is where and how I find myself, though conditions may be deplorable, I choose to remain hopeful and authentic within myself.  I will not allow those challenges before me to be larger than I am.  I will not be diminished, but will stay in my integrity to make a difference where I am.  I will be the truth that I AM!?  There was no long-lasting pity party, there was no railing against the winds of fate, there was no blame, retaliation, or hate.  There is but a humble, quiet, internal stance of love, of faith, of service to something greater than the human condition, while in the middle of a seeming hell.

            Was it easy? No!  Did it matter? YES, and probably more than they or we realize.  But how do we become icons of love and virtue in a world filled with intolerance, judgment, hate, anger, separation, and isolation?  Should we choose to accept this assignment, there are skills and responsibilities required on our personal dossier.  They are as follows:

1)    Accept the Facts – This does not mean acquiescence or victimhood.  It is an internal release to the way things are, without attachment to the thought that there is no way out, or that circumstances will not change for the better.  Rather it’s a stance of surrendering to what needs to be done, an intention to do what needs doing without rancor.

2)    Move into Faith – Faith in God, in one’s Self, in friends or family.  Faith that there are powerful forces at work in, through and beyond you that flow into the circumstances and events through your alignment in faith.  You are the conduit that allows that Power to work!

3)    View the Situation – but remember the beauty and the love.  Looking around we can see the cruelty, and inhumane acts perpetrated by human beings.  It is wise not to turn a blind eye to this.  Yet it is equally important to remember to see both within and beyond – to notice the senseless acts of beauty and random acts of kindness.  What you focus on magnifies.  It is like looking through a magnifying glass, what may be in actuality, a small part of life; when magnified in our perception, it takes on a disproportionately large expanse.  It is given greater weight than the good that is also present.

4)    Be Grateful – if not for the situation itself, than for the things that are still good, the smile of a loved one, the breath of fresh air, the love between people both near and far, the helping hands and hearts, the memories.  Be grateful for any signs of generosity, of love, of compassion, of caring.  Look for and feel the love, if not directly in front of you, remember it and dwell on it.  It could be a memory of holding your newborn, the day you were married, a loving memory of your Mother or Father loving you, of God loving you, a pet, anything that allows you to get back to the love in your heart and your mind.  Dwell there.

5)    Choice – to be angry and strike out at an unfair world, or to know that being a human being involves feeling the wonder and the grief of living on Earth.  The choice is ours to demonstrate.  We either become kinder, more humble, more compassionate and more grateful.  Or we become more angry, bitter, resentful and unhappy.  The choice always remains in our hands based on our personal decisions in each moment of reckoning.  How will your remaining days be lived?